I feel the need to clear up some common misconceptions that many people have about Oregon. Texans love their state, a little too much I think. So I take it upon myself to make sure they are aware, not so much that Oregon is better necessarily, but that other states are just as awesome.

SO, my first issue to address is the weather discussion. Many, many people have told me that they could never live in Oregon because they couldn't deal with all the snow. To this comment I say "What snow? On the mountains?" But Oregon is 'up north' so therefore it snows most of the year. Here is a map I found that may help clear this discussion up. [You'll need to select 'Season-to-date snowfall' and the state if you like, or leave in on national] The places listed having snow in Oregon are in the mountains or high desert areas. Most of the population (Portland included) is well within the area that did not and rarely gets snow.

The other comments I hear have to do with the rain and humidity. It is never really humid in Portland. The humidity is much worse here in Dallas. Also, while on average it does rain more in Portland over the year, it is mostly during the winter. It barely rains during the summer months, contrary to Dallas. Just when you want to be outside all the time because it is nice and warm it starts pouring down rain. Not in Portland. For those who don't believe me there is a great feature on weather.com where you can compare two cities and their weather. Here is the comparison for Portland and Dallas. Also, check out the temperatures. The winter highs in Portland are 10 degrees lower than Dallas ... but the lows are the same. And the summer highs are a much more tolerable temperature I would say.

Now, I think there are nicer places weather-wise to live than Portland (maybe San Diego?) but Dallas isn't one of them ... sorry. We also have very few severe weather threats. I didn't know that people really used the Emergency Broadcast System [side note: apparently it is now the Emergency Alert System, why? I don't know.] until I moved to Dallas where certain times of the year it is used on almost a daily basis for severe thunderstorm, tornado watches and I don't know what else.